Too Much FAAB?

Rodger can't believe the way his league is blowing through its FAAB:

The free agent bidding in my league is out of control. We've now spent just over 1/3 of the total available.

The latest: (Jeff) Clement $46, (Wladimier) Balentien $31, (Brandon) Wood $22,G(arrett) Olson $11, (Aaron) Laffey $9.

My bids for the top three were much more modest: $14 for Clement, $21 for Balentien and $13 for Wood.

This is a keeper league.

As I've discussed ad infinitum in this space, Rodger's league is different than mine in that there is no farm system or reserve list. Guys like Clement and Balentien are available immediately after they're called up and aren't sitting on someone's reserve list at this time of year.

Of the guys Rodger mentions, only Olson was available in my league, and he went for $6. In LABR, all of these players were bought or picked up in the reserve phase of the auction.

I think the Clement and Wood bids are too high. On the other hand, two of the factors I always talk about in my FAAB logs are probably at work here.

The first thing at play here is the theory that five full months of a productive Jeff Clement are worth more than a two month rental of the best player who will be traded into the American League. Delmon Young earned $21 in 2007, while Dustin Pedroia earned $18. Even Mark Teixeira's lights out finish for the Braves was "only" worth $15 last year, and you can't expect such production from your imports. You also can't expect such production from your rookies, but leads right into the next point.

We don't know if there even are going to be any Rolls Royces coming into the league at the deadline. In the N.L., you were lucky enough to get Teixeira last year. In the A.L., Jarrod Saltalamacchia was the trade deadline prize. He earned $4...not a bad showing for a catcher, but not exactly what you were holding on to your money for in May while better players went for high prices.

We don't know what the ROI is going to be on Clement or Balentien, but if Balentien earns $15 this year for that $31 bid in Rodger's league, that's probably going to be a good play. In a best case scenario, Adam Dunn is going to earn the same $15 and go for plenty more FAAB than that in late July.